FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RONALD GOLDMAN - PAGE 2

Mezzaluna restaurant, made famous in the O.J. Simpson case, has shut its doors. The Brentwood eatery where Ronald Goldman was a waiter and Nicole Brown Simpson had her final meal was not open for dinner on Wednesday. An answering machine message said the restaurant would be serving at 5 p.m., but neighbors said the business has been closed since last week. Owner Karim Souki did not return telephone calls to his home. Although the closing could be temporary, a local monthly paper said it received a call for an advertisement announcing an auction of Mezzaluna's tables and chairs.

The O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles took a dramatic turn Monday when Judge Lance Ito granted the prosecution permission to treat the football legend's houseguest, Kato Kaelin, as a hostile witness. Deputy District Atty. Marcia Clark made the request, allowing her to attack her own prosecution witness without repeated objections from Simpson's defense team. Legal analysts said it was unusual for a prosecutor to seek to undermine the credibility of a prosecution witness who had given valuable evidence about hearing a thump on a wall at Simpson's mansion where a bloody glove was later discovered.

A literary agent for the family of stabbing victim Ronald Goldman has made a deal to repackage and publish O.J. Simpson's canceled "If I Did It" book about the slayings of Goldman and Simpson's ex-wife, a spokesman for the agent said Monday. Details of the agreement, including the name of the New York publishing house, will be released Tuesday, said Michael Wright, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based literary agent Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management. ---------- Personals was compiled by Kim Profant from Tribune news services and staff reports.

O.J. Simpson's DNA expert reluctantly acknowledged Friday that critical blood samples couldn't have been contaminated at one stage in processing because they were handled by an outside lab rather than police technicians. In another development, a prosecutor revealed that a second DNA test-one more established and less controversial than the one under attack by defense expert John Gerdes-has tentatively identified genetic material from Simpson and victim Ronald Goldman in a blood stain found in Simpson's Bronco.

The coroner defended his investigators' failure to examine Nicole Brown Simpson for signs she was raped or had consensual sex before she was slain. Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran said Thursday, "I didn't feel it was necessary" for crime scene investigators to collect evidence to document sexual activity by Nicole Simpson because other factors suggested she had not been raped. She and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her condominium on June 12, 1994. "She was fully clothed, intimate apparel in place," Lakshmanan said.

O.J. Simpson's blood has the same genetic makeup as blood found at the site where his ex-wife and her friend were slain, according to sophisticated test results made public Monday. The results of "DNA fingerprinting" likely will be the most important evidence against Simpson because there are no known witnesses to the knife murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Prosecutors have alleged that Simpson left blood at the murder scene when he cut his finger during a struggle.

By Wednesday, 102 people had convinced a judge they could set aside their deepest biases, ignore publicity and spare four months of their lives to sit as jurors in the O.J. Simpson civil case. When they return next week for a final round of juror selection, they will be asked about police power, domestic violence and race relations. Simpson, 49, is being sued in Superior Court by the relatives of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in the June 1994 knife slayings.

Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman refused to answer questions Monday in a deposition for the wrongful death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. "He took the 5th on everything," a source close to the case said. Fuhrman had been expected to invoke his right against self-incrimination during the deposition in Rathdrum, where Fuhrman lives. Simpson was acquitted last year of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The wrongful death suit on behalf of the victims seeks to hold him liable in civil court.

The judge in O.J. Simpson's civil trial ruled on Friday that the former football star's lawyers can tell the jury about their theory that evidence was planted in an attempt to frame him for murder. The decision by Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki, seen as a victory for Simpson, allowed defense lawyers to argue during opening statements that former detective Mark Fuhrman planted a bloody glove on Simpson's estate the morning after his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were killed.

Brian "Kato" Kaelin has finally admitted what he wouldn't say at O.J. Simpson's criminal trial: "I do believe he murdered Nicole." Simpson was acquitted last October of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, his ex-wife, and her friend Ronald Goldman, and Kaelin has equivocated over his opinion of what happened. He let his feelings show during an interview with Geraldo Rivera, broadcast Friday on CNBC's "Rivera Live." "Do you think O.J. Simpson murdered Nicole?" Rivera asked.